ABSTRACT
The Beijing Olympics made visible, through various media practices and events associated with them, a range of different component parts of the constantly and rapidly changing Chinese media landscape. By following the Chinese, and to some degree foreign, media coverage of the Olympics this paper presents a range of clear examples that draw our attention to some of the key ways in which Chinese media work and some of the important changes and developments that are currently taking place in this area of Chinese social life. The paper identifies the more important of these developments treating them under three broad interrelated headings. The first is the relationship of the media to the government and the paper argues that this relationship requires reconceptualisation in ways that avoid the stereotypical polarities of state control and resistance. The second area for discussion relates to the relationship between Chinese and foreign media. I will argue that coverage of Olympics-related events in both Chinese and foreign media reveal important transformations in this relationship. The third issue relates to the rapid growth of new media use in contemporary China. To understand contemporary developments in Chinese media it is impossible to ignore the emergence of new media and new technologies – the Internet, mobile phones, digital television and mobile television in particular. However, the emphasis will not only be on what is new. It is also important to consider how old media habits continue to shape new media agendas and transformations. The paper argues that these developments require us to reconceptualise the Chinese media landscape in ways that break with the established frames of reference.
